LONDON – Twickenham Studios, the location where iconic movies like Alfie, The Italian Job and the Beatles classic A Hard Days Night were filmed in the sixties, is to be sold off to property developers, it emerged Monday.

The studio lot in South West London would have celebrated its centenary next year, but is instead in the hands of administrators, confronted by debts that it cannot meet.

Administrator Gerald Krasner told the London Evening Standard: "The studio has lost money for three years and they're not going to put any more money in. It's being put up for sale and I think it's fairly certain it won't be film studios."

Half of the 17 current staff have left and the rest are working their notice.

Twickenham was once on a par with Pinewood Shepperton and Leavesdon Studios as part of the bedrock of British film production. And as well as its classic history, it has been used more recently in movies like My Week With Marilyn – where the setting was used to recreate the original Pinewood set for The Prince and The Showgirl - as well as for post production on The Iron Lady.

Directors including Stephen Spielberg and Roman Polanski have also used the setting, and the streets of 19th Century Paris were recently recreated there for the upcoming movie Bel Ami.

But the economics of film production have worked against the studios, as well as competition from rival British studios which have invested in better technology.